The
Great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus.
Visual Links:
Introduction:
The
Great Mosque of Damascus is among the earliest public mosques built by the
expanding Arab Conquests. Its large size and prominent courtyard
functioned to enable the gathering of Muslims in the first new capital that was
established after Mecca. It served to bring together Arabs and Muslims as
an administrative capital for the expanding empire of the Mashreq (Palestine,
Syria and Iraq)
This beautiful monumental mosque is one of the oldest surviving
mosques and monuments along with the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque al-Aqsa in
Jerusalem. It was built between 706 and
714-15 by Caliph Walid. The dating of
the mosque’s original construction is known from a recording of the foundation
inscription that was noted by the medieval Arab historian, Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Mas'udi in his Muruj
al-dhahab wa-macadin al-djawhar [Meadows of Gold and Treasury of Jewels],
written in 332–45 / 943–56 (Daiber) .
The major studies on the Great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus are by Oleg
Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art (Grabar, 1987) and Finbarr Flood,
The Great Mosque of Damascus (Flood, 2000) .
It is generally accepted that the Umayyad Mosque was built on the
site of the Roman Temple of Jupiter.
This Roman Temple was converted into a Church of St John the Baptist (known
as the Muslim prophet Yahya) in AD 379. After the Islamic conquest of Damascus,
the site was shared between the Christians and the Muslims of the city. During
the reign of the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya Ibn Abi Sufyan, the Muslims used
one side of the church as a mosque and the Christians retained use of the other
half as a church (Daiber) . During
reign of the next Umayyad Caliph al-Walid bin Abd al-Malik, a negotiation took
place with the Christians of Damascus who gave up use of the mosque but
retained most of their other churches in the city (Archnet,
2015) .
So, the church was demolished and a vast
congregational mosque constructed instead. An early source for the dating of the church is found in Al-Balathuri, al-futuh al-buldan.
Description:
The outer wall of the mosque is formed by the Roman temenos,
an oblong enclosure with pilastered walls, measuring 158 m x 100 m. Of the
mosque's three minarets, the one on the southeastern corner is known as the
Jesus Minaret, and the one in the centre of the northern wall is known as
Minaret of the Bride; both are dated to the early AH 5th / AD 11th century. The
southwest minaret was rebuilt by the Mamluk ruler Sultan Qaytbay after a fire in
AH 884 / AD 1479, and long after the invasion and sacking of Damascus by the Timurid
ruler Ibn Timur in 1401.
The large rectangular courtyard of the mosque is surrounded by a
colonnaded portico (riwaq) on three sides. A domed transept crosses the
building and divides it into arcades of two equal halves.
While the mosaics show features of Roman techniques, their
non-figural forms reflect the new Muslim value of non-representational art
which forbad the representation of human forms in a religious space.
The Great Umayyad Mosque at Damascus is frequently compared to the
Mosque at Córdoba, begun in about 784.
Together these mosques became the prototype for the “hypostyle mosque” that
may be recognized for its combination of a simple, spacious courtyard (sahn) with
a colonnaded portico (riwaq) on three sides, and a covered area for praying
(haram). The division of the interior into three aisles of columns and a cross
transept influenced later architecture in Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and Spain (Daiber)
 |
| Interior of the Mosque with hypostyle columns and roof support (Archnet) |
Two
main materials were for the walls. These
are the small highly decorated mosaic tiles made of colored glass fragments
covered with gold and silver leaf and sometimes stone and polished marble to
provide a glossy and illuminating appearance.
These are known as the : fusayfusa'a mosaic and marble. The designs are distinguished by their
geometric and floral patterns. It is
thought that these vegetation patterns reflect the landscape found along the
Barada River near Damascus, where orchards of fruit trees were perhaps thought analogous
to a vision of heaven (Archnet, 2015) .
 |
| Barada River and Palaces Scene from Archnet |
The mosque is
distinguished by its use of highly ornate and heavily veined marble. Higher up is an ornate band of carved marble above
which is found the vegetation inspired designs in the pattern of 'great golden vines' that show influence of
Roman and Byzantine design. Some fragments of this remains today in the mosque.
Later we find Ottoman blue tiles replacing damaged or missing marble pieces around
the sahn or courtyard (Archnet, 2015) .
As the mosque
was being built al-Walid bin Abd al-Malik is quoted as telling the citizens of Damascus:
'Inhabitants of Damascus, four things give you
marked superiority over the rest of the world: your climate, your water, your
fruits and your baths. To these I wanted to add a fifth: this mosque.' (Archnet,
2015)
Detail of a mosaic panel at the mosque
References
Archnet. (2015). Jami' al-Umawi al-Kabir (The
Great Umayyad Mosque). Retrieved June 23, 2015, from Archnet:
http://archnet.org/sites/31
Daiber, V. (n.d.). "Umayyad Mosque".
Retrieved June 23, 2015, from Discover Islamic Art. Place: Museum With No
Frontiers:
http://www.discoverislamicart.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;sy;Mon01;11;en
Flood, F. B. (2000). The Great Mosque of
Damascus: Studies on the Meanings of an Umayyad Visual Culture. Leidin:
Brill.
Grabar, O. (1987). The Formation of Islamic Art.
New Haven: Yale University Press.
